The bed of a railroad track is typically constructed from a ballast rock such as gravel because the abrasive texture of such rocks holds a pile thereof in a substantially rigid formation. Over a period of time, the vibrations of overpassing trains wears the abrasive pores on the rock and fills these pores with particles of dust. As the ballast loses its abrasive surface, the bed loses its rigidity and the track supported thereon becomes immersed within the ballast. Consequently, old tallast must be periodically removed and replaced with new or refurbished ballast.
There currently exist track mounted devices for removing cleaning and sorting spoiled ballast, thereby producing a ballast suitable for reuse as a track bed. Examples of such tracked railbed reconditioners are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos., 4,563,826, 4,674,208, and 4,705,115 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,847 issued to Whitaker, Jr. For these and other such tracked railbed reconditioners to operate efficiently as a means for removing ballast, means for storing the removed ballast must be provided adjacent thereto during operation. The tracked railbed reconditioner disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,847 also doubles as a means for redistributing large quantities of previously refurbished ballast and consequently, must be continually supplied with new ballast from a supply source traveling adjacently thereto. However, at present, a mobile unit which receives and stores ballast processed by such tracked railbed reconditioners and selectively discharges the stored ballast at a metered continuous pace does not exist.
The tracked railbed reconditioner disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,847 can remove and replace a massive volume of ballast, consequently, a mobile means for storing and selectively supplying ballast to and from the tracked railbed reconditioner would have to comprise several railroad cars interconnected in train. At present there exist no apparatus for conveying ballast across a plurality of interconnected cars nor means for discharging the abrasive ballast rock from a mobile storage car prior to such conveyance. Because of the weight and abrasive texture of the ballast rock, the unloading thereof from a confined storage area is very difficult.